Citizen-contributed images to the catalog

[mereastew]

We have discussed the idea of having direct submission of images to the online catalog for researchers who want to contribute images of records and descriptive information. This would be new functionality for the system and we do have researchers who have contributed or want to contribute images.

A direct upload approach to the front end user interface brings up several potential problems:

• Images that are uploaded need to go to DAS (not OPA, since OPA isn't pushing back information to DAS)
• NARA staff need to determine where the records fit in the catalog and create other descriptions as needed for the images to fit in
• NARA staff need to review images to determine image quality (min requirements, 1 page/image, no hands in the shot) and if there is enough metadata from the researcher to determine where the record is placed in the catalog
• Direct upload to the front end interface could increase the expectation of users that their contributions would be publicly available, when actually NARA will reserve the right not to use them (in cases of poor quality, etc)
• There could be considerable security concerns for the front end UI if users were to upload images directly to the catalog

One approach would be to have a separate site that functions as the upload/contribution location for researchers. The catalog could advertise and link to this site to encourage contributions. An application like Citrix ShareFile ([http://www.sharefile.com/]) (a cloud based solution that would have nominal cost) could work well and provide security scans for files (done outside of the catalog). NARA staff would then review and enter the images and descriptive information in to DAS.

Other questions: Perhaps if DAS had a public portal, users would be able to upload more easily? Perhaps a DAS API could draw from data source and pre-populate the fields for NARA staff review.

The time and level of effort in "stitching" these contributions together in the catalog is time consuming and hasn't been perceived as an efficient use of resources.

[DominicBM]

I think the best way to handle this (thinking far into the future) would be for a writable DAS API, and single sign-on for describers across DAS and the catalog. That way, users of a certain group, like a new Describers user group, can be set up to do things like approvals directly in the catalog web interface that will be pushed to DAS.

Then we can have users make submissions that only go to a non-public stream, like the current moderators stream, until a describer acts on the submission. Similar to how when I correct something in Google Maps, no one sees my change until it is approved by Google.

This is all dependent on what shape DAS takes in the future.